Women's Basketball

Women's Basketball Team Signs Player to NLI

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -
The UC Santa Barbara women's basketball team has added another highly-touted player to its team for the upcoming 2010 season, the team announced on Thursday.

Already with its top two guard prospects signed to National Letters of Intent for the 2010-11 season, the Gauchos added a post player to complement their roster. Adaeze Okolie, who hails from Ontario, Canada, has signed an NLI to wear the blue and gold next year.

Okolie is currently a senior at Dennis O'Connor High in Ajax, Ontario and is said to be a powerful player with soft hands. This past season the 6-foot-2 Okolie averaged 20 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks and three assists per game.

"We are thrilled to add a student-athlete the caliber of Adaeze Okolie to the Gaucho family," UCSB head coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. "Adaeze will bring a combination of size, skill and instinct to our frontcourt. She plays with passion and will be an asset to the UCSB community both on and off the court."

Recently, Okolie led her club team, the Advantage Titans, to a silver medal finish in the AAA Division 1 Under-19 Junior Women tournament, meaning her team is ranked as the second-best team in all of Ontario.

According to the Gaucho coaching staff, Okolie "is known as one of the hardest-working players on the court," and is someone with "an imposing presence on the low block."

Okolie joins an incoming freshman class that includes point guard Nicole Nesbit and shooting guard Melissa Zornig. Click here to read about the Gauchos' NLI signings of Nesbit and Zornig.

About the Gaucho Fund: The Gaucho Fund was launched as part of the Dare to Be Great strategic plan and is UCSB Athletics' annual giving program to provide vital funding support for scholarships, academic success and leadership development for Gaucho student-athletes. The Gaucho Fund is the anchor to the Dare to Be Great campaign.